The trend in sales now is to provide value to your customers, but there must be some kind of exchange in the transaction, so you may find yourself asking, “When should I talk about price?”

How do you bring it up? What exactly will you say when it’s time to talk about it?

Today we’re going to share ideas that will help you provide tremendous value and ensure an effective, value-rich conversation for both parties.

This is a segment from our TSE Certified Sales Training Program and we’re going to share a snippet from one of our training programs and then offer some ideas based upon what you hear. It will let you learn something about selling and offer you an experiment that you can test for yourself.

You’ll hear the challenges that other sales reps are facing and share with you what has worked for the group members.

Taboo

We’ve been taught that it’s taboo to talk about money, so many of us shy away from it. New sellers face the biggest challenge, usually because of limiting beliefs.

In the past when I was selling software training classes, I didn’t understand that it was worth $10,000 for customers to earn their certification over a weekend. I didn’t think anyone would be willing to pay it.

I didn’t understand that for their $10,000 expenditure, they were going to see a $20,000 to $30,000 increase in their earnings over the course of a year.

All I knew was that $10,000 was a lot of money. My self-limiting beliefs made me apprehensive, and this is a common problem for new sellers.

You must believe in the product or service you’re offering and the value it provides to your prospects. When you do that, you’ll develop more confidence in your messages, and it won’t matter what the course costs.

Bring up the money

Once you’ve identified a product you believe in, when do you bring up the money? That depends largely on the product or service that you’re selling. If it’s software that costs $30 a month and they won’t commit, they probably weren’t the right fit anyway.

Let them go.

If you’re selling a software solution that you have to customize for the organization, you’re going to need more time. You’ll have to gather more information in order to give them effective pricing.

If the customer can see the prices on your website, they can weed themselves out at the beginning. People who really want to learn more and have more value-rich conversations will engage. In the later conversations, we can discuss what they’ll get for their investment.

Addressing price

We’ll tap into emotion by addressing how our product or service will help them.

What will happen if the client doesn’t get coaching?

Why do I need coaching right now?

What results will I see if I get coaching?

Because people make emotional decisions and then justify those decisions logically, if we build value well, the $1,500 price tag for coaching won’t seem like a big deal. The return on their investment, the ability to provide well for their family, and the possibility that they will advance in their careers will justify the cost.

In the case of a more complex solution, when the customer asks about price, be honest when you tell them that you can’t predict exact numbers right now. If you can’t yet determine all the variables and if you can’t determine the exact infrastructure, explain that to the customer.

Then invest the time to understand the setup and the infrastructure. Find out what challenges the prospect is facing.

Be intentional

It’s possible that the customer is simply fishing, or in other cases that he is simply looking for a ballpark figure. In the latter case, perhaps try giving him a range for other similar clients.

Don’t give the customer your lowest number if you provide a range. If the cheapest you’ve done is $5,000 and the most expensive is $20,000, don’t offer the $5,000 number. Go a little higher.

Instead, offer a higher number, like $8,000 or $10,000. Once they have a number in their minds, you’ll determine whether they are truly serious about moving forward.

Content

In this situation, effective blog posts that describe the return on investment will help your customers gather information. Especially if yours is a complex solution, you’ll help them understand the components involved and what they should be looking for in a vendor.

In the case of sales training, perhaps you’d have different blog posts that describe the different levels of training and the different types of service that you offer.

The prospect can determine what courses are available and what his options are for in-person training, group training, or workshops.

Consider, too, outlining entry-level solutions, mid-tier solutions, and a higher tier. Each solution, based upon the complexity, can solve specific problems.

Research

The prospect can do some research ahead of time and find answers to some of their basic questions. Because this will be an enterprise solution, he’ll have to come to the table prepared to invest money.

At this point, it’s appropriate to talk about budget because you don’t want to begin building presentations or demonstrations if the product or service isn’t a fit. Get an understanding of what kind of investment the prospect is looking to make.

Be up front. Acknowledge that you’d like to know as soon as possible if the prospect determines this isn’t a good fit. Promise to do the same for your prospect.

Ask if the company has already earmarked a budget for this project. Find out if they are planning the project for this year.

Pain

Once you’ve discovered the pain, use that to see if you can move them toward the project right now. Anticipate that they may not be able to do the whole thing right now, but they might do half this quarter and half the next quarter.

Once we have an understanding we can move forward. If you built rapport with this prospect and created communication, it will be easy to discuss finances.

Terminology

New sellers might ask about the proper words to use. Rather than budget or payment, I use the word investment. That’s a given, right?

They are investing in sales training to solve a problem. They are expecting to see a return on the money they spend.

If it’s a new seller who wants to become the best in the company or a female business owner in a male-dominated industry, they are expecting to show some results from their investment. The word payment sounds too transactional.

As you’re having these conversations, understand that you should wait to mention the money after the buyer has a sense of the value you’re offering.

They must see the value before they can comprehend the investment.

“When Should I Talk About Price?” episode resources

Connect with me on LinkedIn or on Instagram and let me know how this worked out for you.

You’ve heard us talk about the TSE Certified Sales Training Program, and we’re offering the first module free as a gift to you. Preview it. Check it out. If it makes sense for you to join, you can be part of our upcoming semester in April.

You can take it on your own or as part of the semester group. The program includes 65 videos altogether, and we just completed a beta group that helped us improve the program and maximize the information in it.

If you and your team are interested in learning more, we’d love to have you join us. Call (561)578-1729 to speak directly to me or one of our team members about the program.

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Donald is the host of the popular sales podcast,"The Sales Evangelist". He is the founder of The Sales Evangelist Consulting Firm where he helps small companies develop killer sales process to scale their business and increase growth.Donald is also an award-winning speaker, sales trainer, and coach. He's a big fan of traveling, South Florida staycations and high-quality family time. Donald has a belief that “anyone” can sell if they have the desire and receives the proper training.